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William McKinley 



MEMORIAL SERVICE 



IN THE 



First Methodist Episcopal Church 

BOW STREET 
SOMERVILLE, MASSACHUSETTS 

Sunday (3 P. M.), October 13, 1901 



UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE 



CITY GOVERNMENT 




SOMERVILLE JOURNAL PRINT. 
1901. 






^^M^^r 



DEC 7 1903 
D, of D, 



flDclkinle^ flfcemorial Service. 



©roan IDoluntars — " flDarcbe ffunebre." 

BY CHRISTOPHER A. W. HOWLAND, ORGANIST OF THE FIRST 
METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, SOMERVILLE. 



Baritone Solo — "Bbtoe witb /toe." 

BY FRANK F. ARMSTRONG, OF SOMERVILLE. 

Abide with me : Fast falls the eventide ; 
The darkness deepens ; Lord, with me abide : 
When other helpers fail, and comforts flee, 
Help of the helpless, O abide with me. 

Swift to its close ebbs out life's little day ; 
Earth's joys grow dim, its glories pass away, 
Change and decay in all around I see ; 

thou, who changest not, abide with me. 

1 need thy presence every passing hour ; 

What but thy grace can foil the tempter's power ? 
Who, like thyself, my guide and stay can be ? 
Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me. 

I fear no foe, with thee at hand to bless : 
Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness. 
Where is death's sting ? where, grave, thy victory ? 
I triumph still, if thou abide with me. 



Hold thou thy cross before my closing eyes : 
Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies : 
Heaven's morning breaks, and earth's vain shadows 

flee: 
In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me. 

— Henry F. Lyte. 



Ifttvocation, 

BY REV. NATHAN K. BISHOP, RECTOR OF EMMANUEL (EPISCO- 
PAL) CHURCH, SOMERVILLE. 

O God of Hosts, who leddest our fathers forth, 
making them go from one kingdom to another people, 
and hast granted us an heritage of glorious suffering and 
the strength of chastening trial, bind up the nation's 
wound and make it whole. Bless the service in which 
we are now engaged, and make it profitable to us all by 
causing us to remember and to follow, in our several 
stations of life, the example of our departed President, — a 
brave warrior, a far-seeing statesman, an incorruptible 
patriot, prophet and martyr of our country's mission. 
Grant that his successors in office may perform the 
work of their ministry in his spirit, with his faithfulness, 
and lead the upright Christian life which he led. Keep 
our country from all lawlessness, division, turmoil, and 
from every evil way. Make it to resemble more and 
more the Holy City on earth — a city foreseen by pro- 
phets, in which shall dwell righteousness and justice, 
peace and happiness. And now that our departed 
President, being relieved from the burden of the flesh, 
is in everlasting joy and felicity, and having finished his 



course in faith, now rests from his labors, grant that 
all we with him may have our perfect consummation 
and bliss, both in body and soul, in thine eternal and 
everlasting glory; for the sake of Him who died, and 
was buried, and rose again for us, our Saviour, Jesus 
Christ. Amen. 



Hntbem — " Go ZTbee, © Country ! " 

BY THE CHORUS CHOIR OF THE FIRST METHODIST EPISCOPAL 
CHURCH, SOMERVILLE. 

44 To thee, O country, great and free, 

With trusting hearts we cling ; 
Our voices tuned by joyous love, 

Thy power and praises sing. 
Upon thy mighty faithful heart, 

We lay our burdens down ; 
Thou art the only friend who feels 

Their weight without a frown. 

For thee, we daily work and strive, 

To thee we give our love ; 
For thee with fervor deep we pray 

To him who dwells above. 
O God, preserve our Fatherland ; 

Let Peace its ruler be, 
And let her happy kingdom stretch 

From north to southmost sea/' 

— Anna Eichberg King. 



Scripture IReafcing. 

BY REV. WILLIAM H. PIERSON, PASTOR OF THE FIRST CONGRE- 
GATIONAL (UNITARIAN) CHURCH, SOMERVILLE. 

Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man 
fallen this day in Israel ? 

And David said unto the young man that had slain 
Saul, Whence art thou ? And he answered, I am the 
son of a stranger, an Amalekite. 

And David said unto him, How wast thou not 
afraid to stretch forth thine hand to destroy the Lord's 
anointed ? 

The name of the righteous shall be in everlasting 
remembrance. But the name of the wicked shall rot. 

A good name is rather to be chosen than great 
riches, and loving favor rather than silver and gold* 

( Old Testament. ) 

I heard a voice from Heaven saying unto me, Write, 
Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord* Yea, saith 
the spirit* They rest from their labors and their works 
do follow them. 

And I, John, saw a new Heaven and a new earth. 
And I heard a great voice out of Heaven saying, Behold, 
the Tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell 
with them, and they shall be His people. And God 
shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there 
shall be no more death, neither sorrow or crying, neither 
shall there be any more pain : for the former things are 
passed away. ( New Testament. ) 

Let us praise famous men. The Lord through 
them hath wrought great glory. Men renowned for 



power, giving counsel by their wisdom, leaders of the 
people, discerning and eloquent in their instructions* 
Their bodies are buried in peace, but their name liveth 
forevermore. ( Apocrypha. Book of Ecclesiasticus.) 

The good, great man, — 
"He gave his honors to the world again, 
His blessed part to Heaven, and slept in peace/' 
( Shakespeare. — Henry VIII* ) 

Hush, the Dead March wails in the people's ears : 
The dark crowd moves, and there are sobs and tears : 
The black earth yawns : the mortal disappears ; 
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust ; 
He is gone who seem'd so great* — 
Gone : but nothing can bereave him 
Of the force he made his own 
Being here, and we believe him 
Something far advanced in state, 
And that he wears a truer crown 
Than any wreath that man can weave him* 
Speak no more of his renown, 
Lay your earthly fancies down, 
And " in the sweet earth's bosom " leave him* 
God accept him, Christ receive him* 
( Tennyson. Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wel- 
lington. ) 

For all the saints, who from their labors rest, 
Who Thee by faith before the world confessed, 
Thy Name, O Lord, be forever blest. 

Thou wast their Rock, their Fortress, and their Might : 
Thou, Lord, their Captain in the well-fought fight ; 
Thou, in the darkness drear, the one true Light. 



And when the strife is fierce, the warfare long, 

Steals on the ear the distant triumph-song, 

And hearts are brave again, and arms are strong. 

The golden evening brightens in the west ; 
Soon, soon to faithful warriors cometh rest ; 
Sweet is the calm of Paradise, the blest* 

( Church of England Hymn. ) 



flDemoriai prater. 

BY REV. GEORGE S. BUTTERS, PASTOR OF THE FIRST METHO- 
DIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, SOMERVILLE. 

O Lord, our heavenly Father, we have entered thy 
courts to-day with reverence and adoration. We ac- 
knowledge Thee to be our Lord, our guide, and our 
friend. We have been conscious of Thy presence during 
the hours of this day and Thou hast come with us to 
this place of worship. We know Thou art here and we 
can almost talk with Thee face to face. Our hearts are 
heavy with a great sense of personal and national sor- 
row, but it is not as those without hope. There is an 
inspiration in our sadness that drives away the gloom. 
There is a light in this darkness that directs our thought 
to the Light of the World. 

We thank Thee for the honored man whose name is 
as ointment poured forth, whose face brings courage to 
thousands and whose memory is blessed. We as a peo- 
ple have reason to thank Thee for such a man. We re- 
joice in the victories he won, in the difficulties he so 
bravely overcame and in the affection he had from his 



fellow men. It has helped us to better understand the 
real worth of humanity, and also to realize that men are 
more generous in their impulses than we are often in- 
clined to think. We know it is well with him, and we 
know it is well with us because our God is with us* 
Draw tenderly near to us on this memorial occasion and 
let our hearts be drawn closer to Thee than ever before. 
May this period of thoughtfulness and grief help us to 
see more clearly the possibilities of our natures and the 
needs of our fellowmen. Help us to leave our selfish- 
ness and greed and remember that we are keepers for 
our brothers* 

Our burden is for our country, that she may be 
blessed and prospered of Almighty God; that she may 
continue the land of the free and the home of the brave. 
Remember our President, called by this sad calamity to 
the highest office in the gift of the land, and grant unto 
him great wisdom in the perplexing duties that come to 
his hands and his heart. We thank Thee for his 
courage and independence, and we pray that these 
traits may continue to characterize him, and that a 
mind wiser than human may direct him in all his 
ways. Bless his adivsers and strengthen them in all 
that is pure and right and good. Bless our state, our 
governor and all in authority with him. Bless our 
mayor, our aldermen, our teachers and our schools* 
Bless our firemen, our police officers, and all the 
guardians of our peace. Bless our churches and 
our ministers, our children and our homes, and help us to 
learn faithfully the lessons Thou art seeking to teach us 
in these recent days. 

Remember that home in Canton across whose thres- 
hold the shadows lie. Bless the elect woman who has 



10 



so bravely shared the joys and the sorrows of our 
honored and beloved chief magistrate. In these days of 
loneliness and grief do Thou comfort and sustain her, 
and may the memory of the years of domestic affection 
be a great blessing to her in days to come* We com- 
mit our ways unto Thee. We intend to be loyal, earn- 
est and faithful to God and man* May we be so true 
to Thee that we can say in the closing hour, " It is 
God's way. His will be done/' Through Jesus 
Christ, our Lord, Amen. 



Soprano Solo. — " Sometime Ude'll Tllitoer* 

stanfe." 

BY MRS. WALTER C. BAILEY, OF SOMERVILLE. 

Not now, but in the coming years, 

It may be in the better land, 
We'll read the meaning of our tears, 

And there, sometime, we'll understand. 
Then trust in God thro' all thy days ; 

Fear not, for He doth hold thy hand; 
Tho' dark thy way, still sing and praise : 

Sometime, sometime, we'll understand. 

We'll know why clouds instead of sun 
Were over many a cherished plan ; 

Why song has ceased when scarce begun ; 
'Tis there, sometime, we'll understand. 



11 



Why what we long for most of all 

Eludes so oft our eager hand ; 
Why hopes are crushed and castles fall, 

Up there, sometime, we'll understand. 
Then trust in God thro' all thy days ; 

Fear not, for He doth hold thy hand ; 
Tho' dark thy way, still sing and praise; 

Sometime, sometime, we'll understand. 

— James McGranahan. 



flntrofcuctoq? agrees. 

BY HON. EDWARD GLINES, MAYOR OF SOMERVILLE. 

Thirty days have passed since our Martyr Presi- 
dent, overcome in his struggle with the wound given by 
the assassin's hand, resigned to the will of God and 
rested from his labors. 

To-day the nation lays aside its mourning emblems, 
and it is altogether fitting and proper that the city gov- 
ernment should provide appropriate memorial services. 

On September J 9th there was one vast funeral 
service all over the world, and Somerville joined the 
universal mourning. 

This service is quite different. While our grief is 
no less keen, and our indignation at the cause of his 
death is no less bitter, we are assembled as a city to 
honor the memory of the man, rather than to consider 
his death. 

A memorial service is not for the manifestation of 
grief, as is a funeral, but is rather for the purpose of 



12 

keeping in mind our appreciation of, and affection for, 
some departed friend. " Lest we forget, lest we forget," 
is the invitation that calls us to a memorial service. 

In this strenuous life it is all too easy for us to for- 
get those who have joined the host invisible. 

Leaders retire, but the cause goes on ; rulers die in 
tragic or peaceful ways, but governments move on as 
before, until we come to feel that there is something 
impersonal in the destiny of a nation. 

We must not forget that history is made by men, 
that history itself is the eternal memorial service for all 
those mighty men whose great thoughts, grand ideas, 
and noble lives have made them conspicuous. 

Somerville has arranged these services because 
William McKinley was one of the notable makers of 
history. 

He was no accident : he was more than a child of 
fortune. His promotions never came as a mere happy 
combination of circumstances. At seventeen he entered 
the army as a private, and, without the aid of any rela- 
tive or friend to suggest promotion, he rose from the 
ranks to second lieutenant, first lieutenant, captain, and 
major, and each advance was specified as recognition of 
special daring and bravery. 

In the same way, he went from a private in the 
ranks of citizenship to the highest place of honor and 
responsibility in the western hemisphere. 

Great success in public life depends largely upon 
ability to confound one's enemies and resist the tempta- 
tion of friends. 

William McKinley was a master in the art of 
bringing to naught the schemes of his enemies, and in 
resisting the temptations of over-zealous friends. 



]3 

Twice did the opposing party in Ohio gerry- 
mander the whole state in order to make his congres- 
sional district overwhelmingly against him. 

The first time he won by overcoming an adverse 
majority of more than two thousand; and the second 
time he lost by less than three hundred, after over- 
coming more than three thousand of the adverse ma- 
jority. This defeat for congress made him governor of 
Ohio, and made him an administrator instead of a legis- 
lator — made him President instead of senator. 

But it is more difficult to resist praise than censure. 
In the Republican national convention of J 888 Mr. Mc- 
Kinley was chairman of the Ohio delegation, which 
had been instructed to vote for John Sherman. 

There was a crisis in the convention when it be- 
came certain that Mr. Sherman could not be nominated 
and almost equally certain that Mr. McKinley could be. 
His friends insisted that it was the one chance of his life, 
and that they should vote for him and secure his nomi- 
nation. 

He took the floor and said with emphasis, "It has 
pleased certain delegates to cast their votes for me. I 
cannot, with honorable fidelity to John Sherman, I can- 
not, consistently with my own views of personal integ- 
rity, consent, or seem to consent, to permit my name to 
be used as a candidate before this convention. I do re- 
quest — I demand — that no delegate who would not cast 
reflection upon me shall cast a ballot for me." 

Again in 1892, in the Republican national conven- 
tion in Minneapolis, to which I had the honor of being a 
delegate, Major McKinley presided, and there was a 
moment when his friends thought to stampede the con- 
vention and nominate him, but he once more defied the 



14 



ardor of his friends and made certain the renomination 
of President Harrison. 

This noble man lived as the Christian liveth and 
died as the Christian dieth, and Somerville meets to-day 
to honor his memory. 

We recall his virtues as a man whom some of us 
knew to love and admire ; we recall his eminent service 
as President. Twice did Somerville give him the largest 
relative majority of any city of its size in the country, 
and his memory we will ever cherish* 

McKinley the man is no more. The principles of 
which he was so brilliant an exponent remain. The 
country for which he died, the flag glorified by his life, 
remain, and are still bright, prosperous, and worthy of 
sacrifice. Who can say of this noble, free country what 
its mission is in the Divine plan? Who will delineate 
its expanse? Who will define its future? The respon- 
sibility will call for man's best thought, best effort, 
and, perhaps, best blood. Whatever may be the sac- 
rifice demanded, the cause is worthy. 

©ur Country Still. 

i. 

44 Our country still, 
From storm-swept sea to every inland rill : 
Great dreams to dream, great duties to fulfill: — 
Our country still. 

ii. 

44 Our country still, 
Fronting the keen blades that would strike and kill: 
Freedom our watchword — slaves but to her will: — 
Our country still." 



15 

Memorial Hfcfcress. 

BY ALBERT E. WINSHIP, LITT. D., OF SOMERVILLE. 

The noblest nation on the globe is in the shadow 
of a great grief. No other people is so capable of loving 
devotion. There was never an equal occasion for weep- 
ing with an angry passion, and, as a result, we are 
stricken as no other nation has ever been. 

Five weeks ago an anarchist assassin shot one of 
God's noblemen, a man as pure, upright and lovable as 
any saintly hero of ancient times. Four weeks ago yes- 
terday the struggle for life ended, and if ever man be- 
came immortal, if ever the angelic hosts welcomed a 
white soul, it was when William McKinley said, ** It is 
God's way ; his will be done/' and loosened the hand- 
clasp of earth and accepted that of heaven. 

On September \ 9 the physical, in which had dwelt 
the spiritual, was entombed, and wherever the sun shone 
in its long circuit about the globe there were funeral ser- 
vices, and his praise was spoken in nearly every lan- 
guage of civilization. Never before on one day have so 
many men of surpassing ability paid tribute to any man. 

Seventy-five million people paused in the day's oc- 
cupation, and for a time in the largest cities the steam 
trains and street cars were motionless, and pedestrians 
stood in silent grief with uncovered heads. 

Sympathy is that which we cannot help feeling and 
expressing. If there are 100 pianos in Symphony hall, 
and you touch a key in one of them, it will not only stir 
its string, but every one of the ninety-nine other strings to 
which it appeals will quiver, because it cannot help it. 
That was a spontaneous, rhythmical tremor that the 



16 



whole world felt when friends took their last view of 
the remains of our great leader, who was at once the 
servant, the friend, the brother of every American. 

All this has passed. The world is moving on much 
as before. Another noble man occupies the White 
House ; the very walls that trembled as they beheld the 
prostrate form of the slain President now echo the robust 
spontaneity of boyish vivacity. It is not sympathy that 
brings us together to-day, for that has spent itself in the 
friction of our strenuous life. We are here, thirty days 
after his death, because we loved William McKinley as 
a man and as the President. 

Love is that which you feel because it gives you 
pleasure thus to enjoy and reveal your attachment. On 
September \ 9, under the spell of sympathy, men who had 
even vilified our noble President were weeping in their 
grief, but already these men are whispering their fears 
that we were overzealous in our mourning. To-day no 
word is to be said that would not have been spoken if 
William McKinley were alive, if no anarchist had raised 
the assassin hand. Somerville has a right to hold an 
ardent memorial service, since in his life William Mc- 
Kinley had as large a proportion of affectionate admirers 
and as few detractors here as in any municipality in 
America. Because we loved him we remember him in 
this service. We revere him no more in death than we 
loved him in life. 

All eulogists agree that President McKinley was a 
superlatively good man, a virtuous, honest, upright, gen- 
erous, Christian gentleman. In seven bitter political 
campaigns and in others of ordinary energy there was 
never a public charge or a seductively whispered insinu- 
ation that he was not the soul of honor and the essence 
of virtue. 



17 

But as one reads these eulogies, he can but fear that 
some have emphasized his goodness and his lovableness 
to escape giving credit for his ability as a statesman and 
his greatness as a leader; that others have magnified his 
virtue and integrity, in order to give the impression that 
they are rare qualities in public life. Neither of these 
motives in his eulogists is worthy the occasion. 

Goodness is not a rare quality in public men. 
President Roosevelt is and has ever been, in social 
and in political life, no less clean and noble. Secretary 
Long and each of the men in the cabinet challenges ad- 
miration as an upright, virtuous man. Our own Sena- 
tors Hoar and Lodge are no less estimable ; and where 
have there been more exemplary men than Winthrop 
Murray Crane and Roger Wolcott? We glory in the 
noble manhood of William McKinley because it is the 
ideal of so many American men in public life. 

Somerville holds this memorial service, the first in 
her history, not merely because Mr. McKinley was good 
and lovable, but because, with these qualities, he com- 
bined intellectual vigor, poise and alertness better than 
have most statesmen, because he has left as a heritage the 
accomplishment of many important conditions tending to 
improve the industrial, social, and financial life of his 
countrymen, and tending to give the United States pres- 
tige among the nations and prominence in history. We 
revere the memory of William McKinley because he 
supplemented what he was by what he did that was 
worth while. 

I had the extreme privilege of being a delegate to 
the St. Louis convention that first placed Mr* McKinley 
in nomination for the presidency. It is a gratifying re- 
membrance that I bore some humble part in both the 



18 

campaigns in which he was triumphantly elected, and I 
am not unmindful of the responsibility of voicing the ad- 
miration and affection of Somerville at such an hour as 
this. 

The nomination and election of William McKinley, 
in 1896, and his re-election in 1900 are among the re- 
markable events in the political history of the country. 
Never, since General Grant, has his party given any 
candidate at his first nomination anything like the ma- 
jority which it gave Mr. McKinley. Without the sym- 
pathy or support of any of the moneyed or political cen- 
tres of the country, without representing a doubtful state, 
without the party machinery that had been created for 
the two previous national campaigns, with very persist- 
ent, able and popular candidates against him, he received 
661 1-2 votes in the convention, while the four oppo- 
nents combined had but 240 1-2, so that his victory rep- 
resented practically three to one, and his vote was eight 
times as great as his leading opponent's. No equal 
political triumph has been recorded in his party. 

The election was even more astonishing than the 
nomination. In 1896 there were arrayed against him 
more sectional and class interests than were ever before 
combined, and it was the most vigorous oratorical cam- 
paign ever waged. The vote showed Mr. McKinley to 
have received ninety-five majority in the electoral college, 
and a popular plurality of 602,555, the only Republican 
plurality since General Grant's election, except a paltry 
7,000 plurality for Garfield. In 1900 many new interests 
were arrayed against him, with eminent names and large 
wealth, and the prejudice against a second consecutive 
term, so that his re-election was doubted by many emi- 
nently wise forecasters of political events, and yet his 



19 



triumph was little short of marvelous,— 137 majority in 
the electoral college, and 871,513 popular plurality. The 
political endorsement, therefore, was more than fifty per 
cent, greater than in 1896, and the popular endorsement 
was almost fifty per cent, greater. Any one who has 
made a scientific study of political history realizes what a 
testimony these facts are to Mr. McKinley. 

There are numerous instances of men who succeed 
until they meet some supreme test, there are many who 
can meet any emergency in some one direction, but the 
world has had few men who were equal to severe strains 
in various directions, and very few who have failed in 
no great test. Washington and Lincoln were such men. 
Mr. McKinley's place in history will rest upon his ap- 
proach to these men in this regard. 

In American life there are a few chronic difficulties. 
Partisanship has been a national terror. The machine 
within a party in the great cities has been the worst fea- 
ture of partisanship. Prior to 1897 there had been no 
President in either party since the Civil War who had 
escaped open, bitter, resentful antagonism on the part of 
political leaders of his own party in the great cities. The 
first President in either party to avoid the slightest dis- 
turbance of the kind was William McKinley, who, 
through three congressional campaigns, received a hearty 
vote of confidence. In no instance did he meet opposition 
in any direction from any leader in any great city. Nor 
did he secure immunity by surrendering to the opposition, 
or by taking these leaders unduly into his confidence! 
No president, not even Mr. Lincoln, gave less time to the 
professional politician, nor was it secured by yielding 
everything to these men by way of appointment. From 
Philadelphia he called to his cabinet as the man to have 



20 



charge of the vast patronage of the post-office depart- 
ment Charles Emory Smith, who has never bowed the 
knee to Senator Quay ; as a man to have charge of all 
the custom house appointments, Lyman J. Gage, who 
was no friend of the Chicago politicians ; and from New 
York city he gave his three highest honors to Whitelaw 
Reid, Joseph H. Choate, and Elihu Root, about the only 
prominent men who had hurled classic anathemas in 
blistering English at Thomas C Piatt ; and yet Mr. Piatt 
bowed to the inevitable serenely, as did Mr. Quay and 
the Chicago leaders, and not so much as a ripple ruffled 
their dreams or clouded their memories. 

This is not the only evidence of Mr* McKinle/s 
superb power over men. In his original cabinet was 
one man whom the war with Cuba gave unenviable dis- 
tinction. He was a born fighter, a man with a host of 
ardent friends, was idolized in his own city, and was the 
leader of one of the great organizations in the country. 
He must retire from the cabinet, and his going under any 
other administration in a generation would have meant 
political chaos, but, in the face of a more galling journal- 
istic fire than any American has withstood since Lincoln, 
Mr. McKinley kept the secretary of war in his place 
until his personal regard was established, and then bowed 
him out in such manly fashion that the jar did not 
quicken by the fraction of a heart beat the political pulse 
of the nation. 

Some men have exceptional power in emergencies, 
but drift upon the shoals in a calm. General Grant was 
a man of giant strength in selecting commanders for the 
army of the Potomac, but his reputation suffered from 
some men whom he called about him in times of peace. 
Not so with President McKinley. Never has there been 



21 



a group of brainier men or more acute specialists than 
eight of the nine men whom Mr. McKinley called to his 
cabinet. Of the eight men of his political household, 
there was no one whom he changed, or whom either of 
the great political parties desired him to change, at his 
second inauguration. They were men of such surpass- 
ing fitness that upon his death the stock markets of both 
hemispheres sat in the hush of great anxiety to know if 
Mr, Roosevelt would retain them alL Never has civili- 
zation given such a testimonial to any body of men or to 
the matchless wisdom of the man who formed the group. 

The remarkable fact is that about the board where 
these men sat, — masters each of them of his own sphere 
of action, — Mr. McKinley, who was a specialist in none 
of their departments, was the master mind in all their de- 
liberations. 

Beyond the power to wisely estimate and skillfully 
manage a few eminent men is the ability to loosen intri- 
cate and tightened problems in which the prejudices of 
unschooled masses and the intensity of sectional feeling 
and class interests are involved. Two such problems, 
tangled beyond the recognition of those who were re- 
sponsible for their origin, were solved by the administra- 
tions of Mr. McKinley after the snarl had been tightened 
for a century* 

The tariff was a perplexing issue in the days of 
Alexander Hamilton, and every wise leader has had a 
hand at intensifying the prejudices involved; even the 
brilliant oratory of John C. Calhoun and Daniel Webster 
was at its height when the tariff was their theme. It 
has wrecked statesmen, has sent political parties to their 
graves, and arrayed the masses against the classes. Bit- 
ter and abiding hatred has been engendered, capital has 



22 



been paralyzed, and labor idle until tramps swarmed 
from sea to sea because impracticable men saw visions, 
and wisdom was not in command in the councils of the 
nation. 

Never in a hundred years were industrial interests so 
benumbed as on March 4, \ 89 7; yet after a little time 
capital was everywhere employed at unprecedented returns, 
labor was sure of abundant work at higher wages, under 
better conditions than anywhere else in the world, than 
ever before in any land. So complete was the solution 
of the problem that upon his re-election no one of the nine 
parties that had a national convention ventured to 
seriously suggest that there had ever been any other 
thought on the tariff than that under which the country 
had returned to prosperity. So completely had the tariff 
discussions of a century been abandoned, that in his last 
public utterance Mr. McKinley ventured to outline a 
policy for the country, regardless of previous party strife* 

The money question had been even a more serious 
cause of party and sectional disruption than the tariff. 
The intensity, the ferocity, the venom in the financial 
discussions for a hundred years, and especially in the 
last thirty years, have led to bloodshed and sectional 
hatred almost as great as that caused by slavery itself. 
It was during the administration of Mr. McKinley that 
this division of sentiment practically disappeared, and 
the ambitions and convictions attendant upon it became 
little more than a consolation of memory. 

The course of events on the tariff and the money 
question, tending, as they did f to national, industrial and 
financial peace and international, industrial and finan- 
cial supremacy, are enough in themselves to make the 
administration of William McKinley of world-wide im- 
portance. 



23 



In November, 1898, the New York Herald sug- 
gested that United States bonds were likely to sell at a 
higher price than British consols, that had for generations 
been the world's ideal of security and value. The Lon- 
don Times responded that such a suggestion bordered 
close upon a governmental insult to Great Britain, for 
which the ministry might be justified in calling for an 
apology from the United States. In thirty days our 
bonds had passed and almost distanced their consols, both 
in New York and London. 

Five years ago the most interesting book in the 
commercial world was "Made in Germany/' which 
showed how completely the Germans had taken posses- 
sion of the world. Already Germany has sent to Amer- 
ica experts to learn how it has happened that the United 
States has displaced her in the world's markets. 

It is an interesting fact that there has been no man 
in the cabinet, in the senate, or in the house of representa- 
tives who has been such a commanding figure as to 
claim any considerable credit for either of these great 
triumphs, and there is no man to whom ardent admirers 
incline to ascribe special credit. 

Greater even than the service rendered the country 
through the solution of the problems of the tariff and of 
finance is that which had begun to come to the South. 
It is not claimed that the Southern question has been 
solved; but those most conversant with the sentiment 
and conditions believe that, had Mr. McKinley lived 
through his second term, this question, which had run 
its line of sectional separation and jealousy so deep as to 
seem ineradicable, would have been as completely settled 
as are the tariff and the money issue. 

Certain it is that Mr. McKinley was respected and 



24 



loved in the South as no other Northern President ever 
was, and he was welcomed in the South as no other 
President of either party or of any section has ever been, 
and the ovation which he received everywhere in the 
South was fully equal to anything accorded him in the 
North. 

It is not certain that Mr. McKinley would have a 
place in history from any of these causes* They are all 
finishing touches to the work of other men. It is prob- 
able that Mr. McKinley has placed the United States 
on an entirely new and distinctly higher plane than she 
has reached, or than she would have reached for many 
years. It is fairly evident that there will never be the 
same discord between a president and the party leaders 
of the great cities that had long existed; that cabinets 
will evermore be composed of specialists of distinction, 
regardless of the desires of politicians or the claims of 
sections; that industrial and financial conditions will 
never be seriously deranged by party discussions; that 
the North and South will not suffer from the former line 
of cleavage ; that the old party alignment has practically 
disappeared. 

Before Theodore Roosevelt took the oath of office, the 
day that the nation's bereavement brought to him the 
heaviest of responsibilities, he paused to assure the cabi- 
net, the country, and the world that it will be his highest 
aspiration to follow the policies of William McKinley. 
Whoever is nominated in \ 904 will make his campaign 
on the issue that he will carry out the McKinley policies, 
and when the two party nominees go before the people, 
it will be a contest as to which is most loyal to the 
McKinley ideas. 

For several years it has been the most earnest purpose 



25 

of the opposition to impress the fact that it is the embodi- 
ment of the Lincoln idea. Hereafter it will be the claim 
of all who seek the votes of the nation at large that they 
represent the prosperity, financial soundness, and sec- 
tional peace aspirations of William McKinley. 

In this connection it is worthy of note that no man 
with a shibboleth has been wholly satisfied. If it was 
"Protection," "Gold Standard," "Civil Service," "The 
Monroe Doctrine," or "The Declaration of Independ- 
ence," that some time-honored men worshipped, they 
found little satisfaction in the words or deeds of William 
McKinley. He was too broad, too deep, too noble to 
bury the country's hopes in any one issue, or to jeopard- 
ize her interests in the phrases of any man. So long as 
protection could be used for his country's prosperity, he 
used it to the limit, and when it had served his country 
as far as it was able, he set it aside for reciprocity. He 
stood by the gold standard because it seemed the shortest 
way to a stable financial life, but he did not assume that 
there would never be virtue in bimetallism. He rever- 
enced the Monroe doctrine for all that it had done for the 
New World, but he insisted that it should never hinder 
the progress of civilization. All that he did toward 
the settlement of vexed questions of the century, pre- 
paring the way for a new century, was largely accom- 
plished because he knew neither fear nor favoritism at 
the hands of good men who worshipped at the shrine 
of some phrases of the fathers. 

When Horace Greeley wrote Abraham Lincoln that 
blistering open letter in August, J 862, the President, in 
his reply, said : " If there be in it any statements or 
assumption of fact which I may know to be erroneous, I 



26 



do not now and here controvert them. If there be in it 
any inferences which I may believe to be falsely drawn, 
I do not now and here argue against them. If there 
be perceptible in it an impatient and dictatorial tone, 
I waive it in deference to an old friend, whose heart 
I have always supposed to be right. 

"I would save the union. I would save it in the 
shortest way under the constitution. If there be those 
who would not save the union unless they could, at 
the same time, destroy slavery, I do not agree with 
them. My paramount object in this struggle is to 
save the union, and is not either to save or destroy 
slavery. What I do for slavery and the colored race 
I do because I believe it helps to save the union, and 
what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it 
would help to save the union/* 

This was ever the spirit and the purpose of William 
McKinley. His paramount object was the greatest pros- 
perity, and the highest good of the people, and the 
greatest service of America to the world. He never 
chafed under the criticism of men whose hearts were 
supposed to be in the right place, but who would accept 
no prosperity, no good to humanity unless such prosper- 
ity and service should be held in abeyance until their 
phrases were given recognition* He never replied to 
them, he merely pitied them as handicapped by narrow 
vision. His forbearance was a matchless virtue. 

President McKinley's place in history will not rest 
on the problems of the nineteenth century which he was 
largely instrumental in solving, but, rather, on the prob- 
lems that he bequeathed to the twentieth century to 
solve. We celebrate the birthdays rather than the death 
days of men and of events. S» F. B* Morse, who gave 



27 



us the frailest inception of the telegraph, is the world's 
electrical idol, rather than the men who have added to 
its power and glory until they have made the idea of 
Mr. Morse a mere speck in comparison. Franklin's 
kite will be glorified when every perfecter of the electrical 
idea has been forgotten. So Mr. McKinley will live on 
what was begun in his administration, and not on that 
which was perfected. 

In 1604 France gave to one of her subjects a charter 
to all the land in America between the parallels of forty 
and forty-five degrees, or practically from Philadelphia 
to Montreal ; but before the Frenchman entered upon his 
inheritance, the English came to Plymouth, and little by 
little pre-empted the New England coast. France cap- 
tured the maritime Provinces, the St. Lawrence valley, 
and the Great lakes. The French believed there was 
more wealth and a greater future in the cod fisheries and 
the St. Lawrence basin than in the rocks and sands of 
New England. From those first days until 1759 North 
American affairs were dictated by the kings and queens, 
lords and bishops of England, France, and Spain. The 
tomahawk flashed and the scalping knife was sharpened 
whenever European courts thought it wise to be at 
war. Our fathers could not buy West India groceries 
or sell the Spanish islands New England rum unless 
English and Spanish courtiers were wining and dining 
together. For more than a century the safety of the 
women and children of New England from Indian 
kidnapping or scalping depended upon the mood of 
European courts. 

On the night of February 28, 1703, the beautiful 
village of Deerfield went to bed — that was before the 
days of retiring — as peacefully as a summer camp by 



28 



the sea, but before the dawn fifty-nine men and 
women were cold in death, and their scalps were 
waved aloft by the 200 French soldiers and HO Indian 
warriors, who were marching away with 111 captive 
men, women, and children, leaving nearly every house 
in beautiful old Deerfield in ashes. Why? Simply 
because Charles II. was about to die childless, and 
William of Orange and Louis XIV. would not agree 
upon the relations of England and France to the future 
ruler of Spain. 

This is a sample of the causes of nearly all the 
wars in which the New England settlers were a prey 
to the savages, and this might have gone on, but for 
the heroism of J 759, when every able-bodied man in 
New England left his wife and children exposed to 
the ferocity of the merciless Indians, but for such pro- 
tection as might come from the aged, the invalid, and 
the youth. These men then marched, 40,000 strong, to 
the walls of Quebec, and by one decisive blow ended 
forever the influence of European quarrels in American 
affairs. It took a little time and some sacrifice of 
human blood to make England understand the new 
conditions, but from 1759 to 1898 the United States 
merely asked that she be let alone, and that the na- 
tions of the Old World leave us to ourselves. 

In 1898, for good or ill, the United States en- 
tered the world's arena. Under a noble impulse, we 
interfered with the domestic affairs of one of the oldest 
European nations, and, through the brilliancy of our 
army and navy, and the excellence of our diplomacy, 
we found ourselves in position to place the crippled 
peoples in Cuba and Porto Rico and the millions of 
an Indian archipelago on the highway to the noblest 
civilization and broadest Christianity. 



29 



It is not for us to say what the effect may be, 
for we are not prophets who stand on the threshold 
of the twentieth century, but we have a right to say 
that ours is the opportunity to make the stars and 
stripes, emblem of purity, love, and life, the banner of 
a higher civilization than any other nation has ever 
carried to savage or heathen peoples. In a single season 
the magic wand of our municipal and sanitary science 
cleansed Havana, that had been cursed by yellow fever 
from time immemorial, and the standard we can set for 
the nations of Europe may easily cleanse the globe of the 
festering evils of barbarism. 

In 1896 the United States did not dare speak, no 
matter what was going on anywhere in the Eastern 
hemisphere, but in Mr. McKinley's day we settled mat- 
ters in Turkey that would never have been adjusted 
prior to J 898, and the American soldiers set the Christian 
standard in China, and American statesmanship held at 
bay all the diplomats of Europe until their demands were 
as merciful as they were just. 

We need not re-name the Philippines, for the name 
of McKinley will be written on every island we bless 
with our science of government, on every nation that 
we protect from the political greed of Europe, on every 
industry that bears America's imprint, on every breeze 
that broadens our commerce. 

Circumstances make it certain that hereafter, and 
more and more as the years go by, whoever speaks of 
Washington and Lincoln will add with equal reverence 
the name of McKinley. 

The real memorial to William McKinley will not 
be public services, but an attempt to be of service to our 
country and humanity under the inspiration of the life 



30 



he led and the work he did* The greatest testimony to 
his tariff leadership is that every state platform promptly 
adopted his reciprocity idea ; to his financial policy, that 
the stock markets of the world advanced when President 
Roosevelt said he should retain the secretary of the treas- 
ury and maintain the policy of Mr. McKinley. 

But higher and grander than either of these will be 
the tribute of those who embody his principles of virtue, 
integrity, and charity, living as he lived, and dying in 
the faith in which he died. 



1b^mn — " Wearer, ffl>£ (Bob, to £bee." 

BY THE CONGREGATION. 

Nearer, my God, to thee — 

Nearer to thee! 
E'en though it be a cross 

That raiseth me; 
Still all my song shall be, 
Nearer, my God, to Thee — 

Nearer to Thee! 

Though like a wanderer, 

The sun gone down, 
Darkness be over me, 

My rest a stone; 
Yet in my dreams Fd be 
Nearer, my God, to Thee — 

Nearer to Thee! 



31 



There let the way appear, 

Steps unto heaven; 
All that thou send'st to me 

In mercy given; 
Angels to beckon me 
Nearer, my God, to Thee — 

Nearer to Thee! 

Then with my waking thoughts, 

Bright with thy praise, 
Out of my stony griefs 

Bethel I'll raise; 
So by my woes to be 
Nearer, my God, to Thee — 

Nearer to Thee! 

Or if on joyful wing 

Cleaving the sky, 
Sun, moon, and stars forgot, 

Upward I fly; 
Still all my song shall be, 
Nearer, my God, to Thee — 

Nearer to Thee! 

— Sarah Flower Adams* 



fl>oem. 

BY SAM WALTER F0SS, OF SOMERVILLE. 

Let us sing the Song of a Man, 
A man who was made of the clay 
And built of the stuff of to-day; 



32 



A man who came up from the throng, 
Came up from the weak and was strong 
And sweet as the breath of the hay ; 
Not the chief of a people we sing, 
Nor the head of a caste or a clan, 
But a kinglier man than a King ; 
Let us sing the Song of a Man* 

Let us sing the Song of a Man, 

One raised to a mighty estate 

And crowned as the darling of fate, 

Who was ever too good to be weak, 

Who was never too high to be meek, 

And was never too proud to be great. 

A leader of men without pride, 

Who loved not his place in the van, 

But who led men and marched by their side 

Let us sing the Song of a Man. 

The iron-faced captains of fate, 
The strong sons of power who drill 
And wrench the whole world to their will, 
Who tread down opposers and climb 
O'er the dead to the summits of time, 
Till the earth, sick with battles, is still, — 
Not of such was the man that we sing; 
Yet we deem him as strong and as great 
As was ever a blood-drunken King, 
Or the iron-faced captains of fate. 

He sent forth the thunders of war 
Where the rights of mankind were denied? 
He sent forth the Navies of Pride 



33 



To frighten the seas with their flame 
And the isles with the fear of his name,— 
This man who loved peace as a bride. 
We followed the lead of the mild 
As the lead of a calm-shining star, 
When this man, with the heart of a child, 
Sent forth all the thunders of war. 

Let us sing the Song of a Soul 
That was sent up too early to God, 
And torn like a flower from the sod, 
Torn up in its fullness of bloom, 
In the height of its perfect perfume, 
As a weed is torn up from the clod. 
But the soul does not die with the breath, 
But mounts, so we dream, to its goal, — 
And his soul shines the brighter through death 
Let us sing the Song of a Soul. 

Let us sing the Song of a Mam 

The years and the centuries fly 

And princes and presidents die; 

And the years shall resound with the tones 

Of the crashing of overturned thrones, 

As the footsteps of doom thunder by. 

But a man is more than a throne, 

Is more than a King or a Khan, — 

Leave this man with his manhood alone — 

Let us sing the Song of a Man. 



34 



Ib^mn — "Xeafc, IRinM^ Xiabt." 

BY MRS. WALTER C. BAILEY, OF SOMERVILLE. 

Lead, kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom, 

Lead Thou me on; 
The night is dark, and I am far from home, 

Lead Thou me on* 
Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see 
The distant scene; one step enough for me. 

I was not ever thus, nor prayed that Thou 

Shouldst lead me on; 
I loved to choose and see my path, but now 

Lead Thou me on* 
I loved the garish day, and, spite of fears, 
Pride ruled my will; remember not past years. 

So long Thy Power hath blessed me, sure it still 

Will lead me on 
O'er moor and fen, o'er crag and torrent, till 

The night is gone, 
And with the morn those angel faces smile, 
Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile. 

— Cardinal Newman. 



prater anfc Benediction. 

BY REV. ELMER H. CAPEN, D. D., OF SOMERVILLE, PRESIDENT 
OF TUFTS COLLEGE. 

Thou in whose hand is the king's heart, who art 
the God of nations and of men — we recognize Thy over- 
ruling hand in ail the affairs of our beloved country. 
We thank Thee for the wonders which Thou hast 
wrought in behalf of liberty and righteousness for the 
American people. We thank Thee for the noble ex- 
amples of our history, our matchless statesmen, patriots, 
heroes, and martyrs. We prize, as a divine gift, the 
inheritance that has been transmitted to us at the cost of 
so much sacrifice. We thank Thee especially for the 
man whom the people, by their suffrages, had raised to 
the highest earthly station, who had served the Republic 
in so many ways, with profit and distinction, and who 
gave up his life without malice toward his assassin, look- 
ing forward into the great hereafter with the serenity 
and faith of a devout Christian. We pray that the les- 
sons of his life and death alike may be a perpetual inspir- 
ation and stimulus to the youth of the nation ; and that 
all the people may imbibe from his example a nobler 
spirit of service, and a deeper trust in Thee. We pray 
that the words that have been spoken on this occasion 
may be duly treasured in the hearts of all in this great 
congregation; and that the meditations of this hour may 
bear fruit in a deeper love of country, and a more un- 
selfish devotion to the institutions of freedom and prog- 
ress. So let thy will be done, until all the kingdoms of 
this world are Thine, and Thine the glory forever. 
Amen. 



36 

TTbe Xoro's prater. 

THE PEOPLE JOINING. 

Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy 
name. Thy kingdom come* Thy will be done on 
earth, as it is in Heaven, Give us this day our daily 
bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive 
those who trespass against us. And lead us not into 
temptation ; but deliver us from evil* For Thine is the 
kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen. 



Benediction. 

The peace of God which passeth all understanding 
keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love 
of God; and may the blessing of God Almighty, the 
fellowship of Jesus Christ, and the Communion of the 
Holy Spirit be with you and remain amongst you for- 
ever. Amen. 



37 



proceeMngs of tbe Cit$ Government. 

The Board of Aldermen met at eight o'clock P. 
M., Friday, September 6, 190L 

The following communication was received from 
His Honor, the Mayor : 



Cits of Somerpille, ZlDassacbusetts. 

Mayor's Office, September 6, 190 U 

To the Honorable, the Board of Aldermen of the City 
of Somerville: 

Gentlemen: — It becomes my painful duty to an- 
nounce officially the appalling disaster that at this 
moment threatens the nation with the loss of its chief 
magistrate by the hand of a foul assassin. 

The telegraph flashes the announcement of an 
attack upon the life of President McKinley, so direful 
in its promise that it seems proper to take official 
notice of the circumstances and by suitable action to 
express our profound sympathy with his family and 
the entire nation. 

The latest news that I can obtain is that he still 
lives, although " clouds and darkness hover round about 
him/' While at the great exposition in Buffalo, in the 
Temple of Music, the foul attempt was made upon a 
noble life, and two shots were fired by the fell assassin. 



38 



It seems deplorable that the nation should be called 
upon to suffer, even for a time, the loss of the benign 
influence of such a master hand at the helm of the 
ship of state in its progress, never so remarkable in 
its influence at home and abroad. We would express 
the earnest hope that the portending disaster may be 
averted. It is a thought that paralyzes all effort, to 
imagine the country deprived of the administrative 
mind and power that has placed this nation at the 
head of the powers of the world in a policy that 
would elevate, Christianize, and free all mankind from 
chains of ignorance and oppression* 

With the hope that this cloud of anxiety may 
soon pass, and that the life of the President may be 
spared to complete his career of splendid achievement, 
and that his clear policy may yet be fulfilled, I recom- 
mend that a committee be appointed to act with myself 
and your president in framing and forwarding to the 
proper parties suitable resolutions of sympathy for him 
in his suffering, and hope for his ultimate recovery. 



Respectfully submitted, 

Edward Glines, Mayor. 



In pursuance of the recommendation made by His 
Honor, the Mayor, the following-named aldermen 
were appointed a committee to act with him and the 
President of the Board of Aldermen in preparing and 
forwarding suitable resolutions : Aldermen Littlefield, 
Kenney, Cushman, Pike, Smith, Watters and Frye. 



39 



A copy of the foregoing communication was for- 
warded by His Honor, the Mayor, to the Secretary to 
the President, with a letter, as follows: — 

Gits of Somerville, /IDassacbusetts. 

Mayor's Office, September 7, \90L 
Mr. George B. Cortelyou, 

Secretary to the President, 
Buffalo, N. Y. 

Dear Sir : — I beg to tender my sincere sympathy 
for the President and his family in this trying ordeal. It 
is my good fortune to have the pleasantest recollections 
of him in personal relations which I value very highly, 
and it seems most unbearable to think of him as com- 
pelled to undergo the pain that such a dastardly attack 
must entail. 

I sincerely hope that the worst has passed, and that 
his recovery may be rapid and his health permanently 
restored. The Board of Aldermen of my city being in 
session at the time of receiving the sad news, I, as 
Mayor, took occasion to present to them a communication 
of which the enclosed is a copy. 

Most respectfully, 

Edward Glines, Mayor. 

The following resolutions were prepared and 
forwarded to President McKinley: 



40 

dtp of Somerville, ZlDassacbusetts. 
Mayor's Office, September U, 1901. 

Mr. President : — The citizens of Somerville, Mas- 
sachusetts, through their Mayor and Board of Alder- 
men, would express their abhorrence of the tragic deed 
which has shocked the world, their gratitude for your 
great courage and fortitude and for surgical skill, 
which, under the guidance of a Gracious Providence, 
have combined to preserve you wonderfully from the 
intended consequences of the assassin's attack, and their 
affectionate sympathy in the hours of anxiety and 
heroic struggle. 

They would also express appreciation of your 

exemplary life and example, of your gallant bravery in 

defence of the Union, of your noble leadership in the 

Spanish complication, of your great service to the 

country through the unparalleled prosperity of the 

Nation in your administration, and of your mission in 

restoring good feeling between the South and the 

North, after an estrangement of many years, which is 

so strongly emphasized in the sympathy of the South 

in this your great trial of strength, patience, and 

faith. 

Very respectfully, 

Edward Glines, 

Arthur P. Vinal, 

Samuel T. Littlefield, 

James W. Kenney, 

William H. Cushman, 

James Watters, 

Joseph S. Pike, 

Daniel M. Frye, 

Committee* 



41 



The Board of Aldermen met in special session, 
at the call of the Mayor, Saturday, September 14, 
1 901, at eight o'clock P. M., to take action in refer- 
ence to the death of the President of the United 
States* 

The following communication was received from 
His Honor, the Mayor: — 



Cits of Somervflle, /IDassacbusetts. 
Mayor's Office, September 14, 1901. 
To the Honorable, the Board of Aldermen: 

Gentlemen: — The most solemn and profound 
occasion of our official term is upon us. I am 
confronted with the sad obligation of officially convey- 
ing to you the mournful news of the death of William 
McKinley, President of the United States. After lin- 
gering for more than a week since he was stricken by 
the shots of an assassin at Buffalo, New York, the 
end came peacefully at 2.15 o'clock this morning. 
Immediately upon receiving the sad news, the bells of 
the city were tolled ; the flags of the city have been 
placed at half-mast, and arrangements have been 
made for suitably draping the city hall* 

I do not propose to present to you a panegyric 
upon the great and lovable man who, but little more 
than one short week ago, was leading us in strength 
and power, but who to-night "sleeps the sleep that 
knows no waking." 

This is not a time for the rehearsal of the tragic 
event, for the harrowing details are still ringing in all 



42 

our ears with too great persistency to need any- 
recalling. 

It is almost twenty years to a day since the death 
of the lamented Garfield. Though numbers of Amer- 
ica's chosen sons have since then gone their way into 
"the great beyond," we have not as a nation been 
deluged in sorrow, in these two decades, such as we 
experience to-day. 

For the third time in our history we mourn a 
martyr President; a man of humbe birth and great 
achievement, a warrior in the nation's battles, a true 
champion of religious convictions and humanitarian 
principles. Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley — what a glor- 
ious triumvirate — "these three, and the greatest of 
these" — who shall say? 

"Lincoln fell at the close of a mighty struggle, 
in which the passions of men had been deeply stirred. 
. . . Garfield was slain in a day of peace, when 
brother had been reconciled to brother, and when anger 
and hate had been banished from the land." And 
now, when the flag of the nation, more resplendent 
than ever, floats over a country that almost encircles 
the world, when prosperity, happiness and contentment 
at home make us a nation whose benign influence is 
felt among all the nations of the earth, without a 
moment's warning the name of William McKinley -is 
suddenly emblazoned among the list of martyred 
Presidents. 

It is eminently fitting that we should assemble at 
this time, and by our action place Somerville on record 
with her accustomed promptness and patriotism; that 
we do our part in expressing the love and reverence 
which we as individuals and as a part of one great 



43 

nation feel for our lamented President, the chosen ruler 
of a mighty people; and that our sympathy, none 
the less real, though formally expressed, may help to 
assuage, in some slight measure at least, the grief of 
those nearest and dearest to him, 

I therefore respectfully recommend the adoption of 
suitable resolutions by your honorable board and such 
other action as may be deemed advisable. 

Respectfully, 

Edward Glines, Mayor. 



On motion of Alderman Caldwell, it was voted that 
a committee of three be appointed by the chair to pre- 
pare and present suitable resolutions on the death of 
President McKinley. 

The chair appointed Aldermen Caldwell, Simonds 
and Preston to serve as such committee. 

The committee presented the following resolu- 
tions : — 

Gits of Somervtlle, /iDassacbusetts* 
In Board of Aldermen, September 14, 1901. 

Whereas, a mysterious Providence has removed 
our beloved President at a time when we were led to 
hope for his speedy recovery from the effect of the 
assassin's bullets; therefore 

Resolved, That Somerville, through her Mayor 
and Board of Aldermen, expresses her unqualified 



44 

admiration of the noble character, broad statesmanship, 
and wise leadership of William McKinley, which have 
combined to make the United States respected and 
admired throughout the entire world as never before, 
and to give unparalleled prosperity to all sections of 
the country and to all classes of citizens. 

Resolved, That in testimony of our appreciation, 
affectionate remembrance, and grief, we appoint a com- 
mittee to act with His Honor, the Mayor, and the Presi- 
dent of the Board of Aldermen in arranging for an 
appropriate memorial service at some suitable time* 

Jackson Caldwell, 
T. Franklin Preston, 
Edwin N. Simonds, 

Committee. 

Read twice and adopted. 

Approved by the Mayor September 14, 1901. 

Alderman Cushman offered the following order : 
Ordered : — 

That, in pursuance of the resolutions adopted this 
day, a committee of three be appointed by the chair, 
to act in conjunction with His Honor, the Mayor, and 
the President of this Board in arranging for a suitable 
memorial service on the death of President McKinley; 
such expense as the Mayor may incur under this order 
to be charged to Contingent Fund account. 

Read twice and adopted ; and Aldermen Cushman, 
Kenney and Walker appointed to serve with the Mayor 
and the President of the Board of Aldermen on the 
committee provided for by the order. 

Approved by the Mayor September J 4, 190 J. 



45 



The following communication was received from 
His Honor, the Mayor. 



Gits of Somerville, ZlDassacbusetts. 
Mayor's Office, September 14, 1901. 
To the Honorable the Board of Aldermen, 

Gentlemen: — The arch fiend Anarchy, the bane 
of European governments and the enemy of all civili- 
zation, has dared to assert itself in free America, with 
what direful results all the world knows. 

If this malignant growth be allowed to thrive, 
none can say what consequences — possibly more terri- 
ble than that we are now experiencing — the future may 
hold in store. 

In view of this recent awful sequel to its teachings, 
it is absolutely imperative that our governments — 
national, state, and municipal — take all possible action 
toward the extermination of this evil, and Somerville 
must do her part. 

I therefore recommend that the accompanying 
resolution be adopted and a copy forwarded to our rep- 
resentative in Congress and our representatives in the 
General Court. 

Respectfully, 

Edward Glines, Mayor. 



The resolution transmitted by His Honor, the 
Mayor, is as follows: — 



46 



Gft\> of SomervMle, /IDassacbusetts. 
In Board of Aldermen, September 14, 1901. 

Whereas, our beloved President, William McKinley, 
has been mercilessly shot down by an assassin, whose 
weak moral nature had been a prey to diabolical ideas 
publicly proclaimed by Anarchists; 

Whereas, the life of our Chief Magistrate should 
be most sacred in the eyes of all citizens; 

Whereas, Anarchists teach that whoever is the 
chosen ruler of this Nation is the one citizen whose 
assassin is entitled to greatest and most enduring honor, 
thus teaching the most abhorrent and inhuman practices ; 

Therefore, Resolved that the Mayor and Board of 
Aldermen of Somerville record their conviction that all 
existing laws should be rigidly enforced and such further 
laws enacted as shall rid our country of those who 
teach, inspire or sympathize with assassination ; and we 
hereby most earnestly appeal to our representative in 
Congress, Honorable Samuel W. McCall, and our rep- 
resentatives in the General Court, to use their best 
endeavors to secure the prompt passage of heroic laws 
to accomplish this end. 

Read twice and adopted. 

Approved by the Mayor September 14, 1901. 



The following is a copy of a telegram sent by His 
Honor, the Mayor, to the President of the United States: 



47 

Somerville, Mass., September 1 4, 1901. 

Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States, 
Buffalo, N.Y.: — 

Somerville mourns with the nation its beloved dead, 
and loyally expresses the utmost confidence in the living 
President. 

Edward Glines, Mayor, 



The Board of Aldermen met in regular session 
Wednesday, September 18, 1901, at 8 o'clock P.M. 

The funeral of President McKinley not having 
taken place, the Board, on motion of Alderman Cush- 
man, did, as a mark of respect, defer the transaction of 
business and adjourn. 

The City Hall was draped in mourning thirty days, 
— from September 15 to October 14. 



Cits of Somervtlle. 



In Board of Aldermen, October 16, J 90 J. 
Ordered : — 

That the City Clerk be, and he hereby is, requested 
to prepare a full report of the municipal memorial service held in 
the First Methodist church, on Bow street, Sunday, the thirteenth 
inst., in honor of the late President McKinley, and to have one 
thousand copies thereof printed for public distribution ; the ex- 
pense incurred to be charged to Printing and Stationery account. 

In Board of Aldermen, Oct. 16, 1901. 
Read twice and adopted. 

GEORGE I. VINCENT, Clerk. 

Somerville, Oct. 17, 1901. Approved. 

EDWARD GLINES, Mayor. 



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